Thread by @nimkef

9 July 2021

UK financier’s voting rights at a Luxembourg company linked to Novalpina Capital, majority owner of NSO Group, will remain suspended

Stephen Peel is in a dispute w/ his two longtime business partners, Stefan Kowski and Bastian Lueken.

theguardian.com/world/2021/jul…

Some good Peel background in this article

https://twitter.com/ThomasS4217/status/1416440827187011589?s=20

Yana Peel (nee Mirkin)

https://twitter.com/mopeng/status/1249167557514461185?s=20

In 1994, TPG, Blum Capital (founded by Richard Blum, Dianne Feinstein's husband) and ACON Investments created Newbridge Capital, a joint-venture to invest in emerging markets, particularly in Asia and, later, in Latin America.

https://twitter.com/BenjaminT0001/status/1373073740355891200?s=20

Serpentine Sackler Gallery opened in 2013 funded by the Sackler family, members of which own Purdue Pharma which is behind the painkiller OxyContin.

“Donations to the Serpentine from the Sackler Trust are historic and we have no future plans to accept funding from the Sacklers.”

Yana Peel is an important figure in the world of fine art

Global head of arts and culture at Chanel

2016-9: CEO Serpentine Galleries
(previously a board member)

Peel is a co-founder of the Outset Contemporary Art Fund (with Candida Gertler, not related to Dan AFAIK)

2013-6: CEO of Intelligence Squared Group
Co-founder of Intelligence Squared Asia

Advisor:
Tate International Council
V-A-C Foundation
NSPCC therapeutic board
British Fashion Council
Asia Art Archive
Lincoln Center
Para Site
Victoria and Albert Museum

Peel is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, a Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute and creator of best-selling children's books to benefit the NSPCC.

reports.weforum.org/the-forum-of-y…

"Digital strategies also attract deep-pocketed tech sponsors: Peel has been able to lure companies such as Google and Bloomberg as partners to help meet the Serpentine’s annual £9.5m target."

ft.com/content/e79f27…

Unpaywalled archive:
archive.is/oIbs8

"It was Michael Bloomberg who, in 2015, recruited Peel to the Serpentine board, which he chairs, seeing in her the ideal mix of ­deal-maker and disruptor. The two had met in Hong Kong, where Peel lived for seven years with her husband, Stephen..."

wmagazine.com/story/meet-yan…

"There, Peel initiated provocative debates as a cofounder of Intelligence Squared Asia (“The Art World Is a Boys’ Club” was one) and became the co-chair of one of Hong Kong’s most important contemporary art spaces, Para Site."

"At McGill University, where Peel studied Russian literature and humanities, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was a classmate (“I can still picture him in his Timberland boots”), and Peel produced fashion drag balls to benefit AIDS research."

"She went on to study at the London School of Economics and Political Science before landing at Goldman Sachs, where she worked primarily with Israeli tech companies."

Stephen Peel resigned from the board of Global Witness after the deal was announced because of the human rights group’s concerns over the “potential for the abuse of surveillance technology”.

theguardian.com/law/2019/jun/1…

18 Feb 2019

“Stephen Peel has served on our Board since Dec 2015. Given this technology exists I would prefer it is run by someone, such as Mr Peel, who is committed to the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

globalwitness.org/en/press-relea…

“As an organisation we have concerns about the potential for the abuse of surveillance technology. The misuse of this kind of technology can have a damaging effect on the work of NGOs and individuals and in the hands of repressive regimes, it can be used to deadly effect."

Peel said: "The work conducted by Global Witness is critical in holding governments, companies and individuals to account and protecting the public from corrupt behaviour. The core principles of Global Witness are close to my fundamental beliefs, and while I am stepping down...

from my role, I will continue to support the fight for justice. I thank all of the team at Global Witness for what we have achieved together over the past three years. Looking forward, I am committed to ensuring NSO adheres to the highest governance practices.”

Side note:

In 2019 Tony Blair's African Governance Initiative (AGI), hired a former Global Witness member to head his Guinea operations

https://twitter.com/nimkef/status/1416575260317585416?s=20

Chairman of Global Witness since March 2016 is Mark Stepherns

"Assange will fight attempts to take him to Sweden to face rape allegations, his lawyer said.

Mark Stephens, warned Wikileaks could release more secrets in a bid to protect itself."

bbc.co.uk/news/world-eur…

8 July 2021

"The source was kidnapped and killed by militants linked to the Islamic State in Afghanistan after his identity was compromised by Global Witness"

politico.eu/article/global…

Global Witness has links to Blair's UK Labour Party

Former MEP, Arlene McCarthy, is on its Advisory Council

Amy Richards, the communications director, is a former Labour political adviser

The former campaign director on the now-disbanded Afghanistan team, Nick Donovan, is a veteran Labour activist who ran for the party’s National Executive Committee in 2017 while employed at Global Witness.

"Forbidden Stories and its media partners identified potential NSO clients in 11 countries: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Hungary, India, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Togo, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)."

allafrica.com/stories/202107…

16 July 2021

"The weapons disabled were being used in precision attacks targeting more than 100 victims around the world including politicians, human rights activists, journalists, academics, embassy workers, and political dissidents," Microsoft says.

zdnet.com/article/micros…

Approximately half of DevilsTongue victims are located in Palestine, but a handful has also been traced back to countries including Israel, Iran, Spain/Catalonia, and the UK.

Sourgum, based in Israel, counts gov agencies across the globe among its customers, says Citizen Lab

With the assistance of Citizen Lab, Microsoft has examined the unique malware family developed by Sourgum and has now pushed protections against it in Windows security products. This includes patching previously unknown vulnerabilities, CVE-2021-31979 and CVE-2021-33771.

Supervisory Board of Olympic Entertainment Group AS (OEG)

Stephen Mark Peel
member since 11 May 2018
chairman since 6 June 2018.

1987 BA/MA Downing College, Cambridge

2015 Master of Advanced Study Jackson Institute of Global Affairs, Yale

Stefan Kowski
member since 11 May 2018

2002 International Economic and Business Studies (MMag. rer.soc. oec.) Leopold-Franzens University, Innsbruck, Austria

2006 MBA with high distinction Harvard Business School, where he was a George F. Baker Scholar

March 2018, Novalpina, through its subsidiary Odyssey Europe AS, paid 288M EUR, for OEG.

As of 31 Dec 2020 OEG operated
23 casinos in Estonia
52 in Latvia
17 in Lithuania
4 in Slovakia
14 in Italy
1 in Malta

olympic-casino.com/company_info_n…